BANGLADESH

Four days after being released on bail, miscreants threw acid on a witness of an acid attack case.

The victim, Selina Akter, 17, a resident of Matipur area in the district town, had testified against the attackers in the case filed for throwing acid on her younger sister, Farhana Akter, 15.

Noakhali district police superintendent Harunur Rashid Hajari said miscreants threw acid on Selina, a higher secondary student, after breaking into her house in the early hours of Tuesday.

Selina was admitted to the Noakhali Medical College Hospital immediately after the attack. Later, she was taken to the Acid Survivors' Foundation Hospital at Banani in the capital as her condition deteriorated.

The victim's mother, Mazeda Khatun, told bdnews24.com that her younger daughter Farhana had came under acid attack the same way on June 15 in 2010.

Farhana's family filed a case accusing Shahjahan Sunam, Yasin Arafat Sajib, Sharif Bihari, Giasuddin Raju, Mahmud and Parvez of the attack.

Selina had testified against them before a district court recently, and all the accused had obtained bail four days back, Mazeda added.

"They attacked my other daughter immediately after they were released," alleged Mazeda in presence of district police chief Hajari, who visited the victim at the Noakhali hospital.

Mazeda, a widow having six daughters, has been living on the help provided by her brothers since her husband had died last year.

"There is no justice in this country. My younger daughter did not get justice and now the elder one has become a victim of the same crime. What is the use of our survival? I along with all my daughters will commit suicide by taking poison," Mazeda continued to wail.

Doctor Mahabub Rahman of the hospital said Selina's face, neck and back had got burned with acid.

Hajari said Mazeda filed a case against the six youths at the Sudharam Police Station over the Tuesday attack and one of them had already been arrested.

"All the accused had been arrested earlier [in Farhana attack case]. Charge-sheet was pressed implicating all the six. But they have committed the same crime just after coming out of jail on bail," said Hajari.

According to Farhana, the youths used to harass her on way to and from school.

She alleged that the accused had been intimidating her family with dire consequences if the case filed against them was not withdrawn immediately.